BRONTE BASKETBALL: Flying high

Bronte battles back after slow start to knock off Gruver

Bronte High School’s Ernesto Casillas tries to recover a loose ball but goes over Gruver’s Drew Mireles instead in the Class 1A state semifinal basketball game Thursday at the University of Texas Frank Erwin Center in Austin.

Cynthia Esparza/Standard-Times

Cynthia Esparza/Standard-Times Bronte High School’s Dakota Rawls goes to the basket while trying to keep control of the ball in the Longhorns’ 47-32 victory over Gruver Thursday in the Class 1A state semifinals at the University of Texas Frank Erwin Center in Austin.

Cynthia Esparza/Standard-Times Bronte High School’s Kerwin Rawls goes toward a loose ball in the state semifinal game against Gruver at the University of Texas Frank Erwin Center in Austin.

AUSTIN — The Bronte High School boys basketball team was bloodied but not beaten Thursday in its Class 1A Division I state semifinal win against Gruver.

Bronte trailed for nearly all of the first three quarters against a patient Gruver team and the Longhorns' top scorer, Dakota Rawls, was in a shooting slump that wasn't getting any better with a bandage covering his busted chin.

But Rawls and the Longhorns finally found their footing at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, and they ran away with the fourth quarter.

With the game tied at 21-21, Rawls hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 26-point fourth quarter for Bronte, propelling the Longhorns to a 47-32 win and into Saturday's state final against No. 1-ranked Cayuga.

"I thought we finally loosened up," said Bronte head coach Rocky Rawls, whose team improved to 27-5. "We told the kids all week, ‘We're from a small town, and this is a big arena, bright lights, big town.' I was hoping we'd get over it a little sooner, but it took a little longer than I was expecting.

"And we live and die by the way we shoot the basketball, and we started making shots."

Bronte was ice-cold early and the Longhorns were held to just four points in the first quarter. Their defense kept them in the game, however, as Gruver managed only eight.

Dakota Rawls split his chin near the end of the first quarter while diving for a loose ball. He had to miss a little over a minute of game time while trainers bandaged him up.

After the game, he had to be taken to a hospital to get stitches.

"That messed with him for a little while until halftime when we could get it all fixed up," Rocky Rawls said.

Dakota Rawls struggled to just four points in the first half, but he scored 22 points in the second half, including 16 in the fourth quarter to finish with a game-high 26 points.

Bronte trailed by as many as six points in the first half (Gruver led 16-13 at halftime), and the Longhorns were down 20-15 midway through the third quarter when they slowly began to turn things around.

They closed the third quarter on a 6-0 run, taking their first lead of the game when Kerwin Rawls hit a pair of free throws with 1.7 seconds left to give Bronte a 21-20 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Dakota Rawls then drilled a pair of 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter, and the Longhorns were suddenly on top 27-23.

Minutes later, Ernesto Casillas had a highlight-reel moment when he chased down a long pass and slapped it back to a trailing Heath Richey for a layup, capping a 15-3 run that put Bronte ahead 30-23.

"We had a real slow start, but we knew we were going to start knocking down shots," said Kerwin Rawls, who had nine points, five assists and three steals. "We just had patience, and it ended up happening."

Dakota Rawls came into the state tournament on an incredible three-game run in which he scored a combined 85 points and knocked down 14 3-pointers.

Despite his early slump Thursday, he still finished 8-of-18 from the floor, 2-of-6 from 3-point range and 8-of-11 from the free-throw line to give him 111 points in the past four games.

"He's been on a high and kind of in a zone for about three or four ball games, and it's kind of hard to stay there," Rocky Rawls said. "I was a little bit worried about that, but the shots he missed early were dead straight, dead on a line. They just weren't going in."

Dakota and Kerwin Rawls were a combined 10-of-29 and Bronte shot 14-of-40 as a team. But Bronte held Gruver to even worse shooting (13-of-40), and most of those made baskets came from the 17 points of forward Rily Urban.

"Coach said, ‘Defense always wins championships,'" Richey said. "So we just kept with our defense, and it held us in the game."

Bronte will play for its first-ever state title in basketball at 8:30 a.m. Saturday against Cayuga.